In winter, the number of people who are troubled by pruritus will rise sharply.

After a refreshing hot bath, I suddenly feel more and more itchy. Just warm up in the bed, legs and feet are itchy to sleep; Or put on a new black sweater to go to an appointment, but my arm suddenly itches beyond my control ... < P > These experiences that many people have had make us wonder: Is our skin itchy when covered with heat in winter?

If you say so, friends who have suffered from frostbite in winter will jump out to refute it at the first time.

chilblain, an inflammation caused by exposure to cold and humid environment, usually makes patients' fingers or toes red, itchy and even blistering and ulcerating.

In the early stage of chilblain, the skin seems to thicken, harden and lose consciousness, but the dull itching from inside is very irritating. Scratching can't be scratched, and it may even cause further deterioration of the condition. It can be said that it is even worse than the common "winter itch".

chilblains

cold itches, and heat itches. This seems to attack our itching from time to time in winter, and there is no effective general treatment?

that's not necessarily true.

In fact, the "winter itch" we often encounter and the itching caused by chilblain are two completely different mechanisms. Specific analysis of specific problems can always find the best treatment and prevention methods for the right medicine.

what is the biggest environmental difference between winter and other seasons? Many people will say that it is temperature, but for sensitive human skin, there is a bigger impact, that is, air humidity.

if you stay in a dry environment for a long time, the water in the upper layer of human skin will continue to lose. The resulting xerosis cutis is the main cause of skin itching for many people in winter. Dry skin is more likely to crack further at low temperature, thus accelerating water loss and causing a vicious circle.

In winter, not only the outdoor weather is cold and dry, but also the use of indoor heating will make a lot of water evaporate, and sometimes the indoor air humidity is even lower than that outside. Therefore, while using hand cream outdoors to protect the skin, we should also pay attention to using humidifier or moisturizing cream indoors with heating to maintain skin humidity.

another point that needs special attention is that it is not worth the loss to "replenish water" by wetting the skin with water in winter. The evaporation of water vapor will not only take away the moisture of the skin itself, but also the heat lost in this process may lead to frostbite and cracking of the skin.

Therefore, frequent hand washing and face washing can't make people moist, but can only make people crack slowly ...

Dry skin has our own internal factors besides environmental external factors.

The epidermis of mammals is a very important protective barrier, which can not only prevent and lock water, but also resist most bacterial invasion. This is also an important level for the human body to maintain internal water balance and the ecological health of the skin.

As shown in the above picture, the moisture in the cuticle of human epidermis protects our skin. Once the moisture content of stratum corneum is lower than 1%, skin problems such as dryness, itching and cracking will occur.

Under normal circumstances, the sebaceous glands under the epidermis will continuously secrete oil. Non-volatile oils can not only help lock in moisture, but also help resist the invasion of most bacteria.

In summer when the temperature is high, the skin sweats and produces a lot of oil. Sweat smell and oil are a big problem in our life. At this time, we can take more baths, use alkaline soap and wash clothes with hot water to remove sweat stains and oil stains.

But in winter when the temperature is low, sebaceous glands almost go into hibernation in daily life, and the oil with little secretion becomes a "scarce resource". In this case, bathing in hot water for a long time and using alkaline soap with strong degreasing will destroy the water locking and protection ability of the skin surface.

Therefore, if the symptoms of "itch in winter" are obvious, we must pay attention to controlling the frequency, duration and water temperature of bathing, and avoid using alkaline soap or detergent. I really can't. As long as your body doesn't smell, why don't you take a shower for a few days? Ensure that "the oil will get rid of the disease".

Actually, in the colder and drier north, it is normal to take a bath every few days in winter. But in the relatively warm and humid south, it is easy to sweat and get oil after a little exercise, so many southerners keep the habit of taking a bath at least once a day even in winter.

after controlling the attention to bathing, we also need to pay attention to the problems of close-fitting clothes and bedding.

after all, many skin problems are caused by microorganisms and bacteria. Excessive cleaning of oily, dry and cracked skin is equivalent to opening a gap for intruders. If the bedding is not clean enough, thousands of kids will start to invade the skin as soon as they get into bed.

Regular washing, bask in the quilt and keeping indoor hygiene can also effectively avoid skin itching.

In addition, clothes made of wool and synthetic fiber are also easy to cause skin reaction and itching. If you already have obvious winter itching symptoms, it is still recommended to change into pure cotton or natural clothes. Otherwise, it's easy to itch and lose your manners when you go out, which is not good.

In a word, there may be many factors leading to mild itching of skin in winter, but this symptom itself is not a big problem-as long as you can resist it.

However, if a large area of erythema or other abnormal conditions have been found on the skin, it is mostly due to subconscious scratching or excessive dryness that leads to secondary bacterial infection and other problems.

In order to prevent it from further developing into a intractable chronic skin disease, we should seek medical advice in time, and never think that it will get better naturally after winter.

As for the chilblain mentioned earlier, its cause is much simpler: it is a pathological change caused by local blood circulation disorder after the body surface is injured by low temperature. Simply put, it is frozen, and it usually takes a week or two to keep the affected area warm to recover slowly.

There is also a common misunderstanding about chilblain: the affected area is caused by damaged capillaries, so it is necessary to keep warm and avoid extreme temperature changes.

That is to say, if the cold affected area is directly immersed in hot water, it will aggravate the injury of the affected area.

back to the topic of winter itch. In fact, itching and pain are very similar two sensory experiences. Just like everyone's tolerance for pain is different, different people's feelings of "itching" are also inconsistent.

On Zhihu, an elder brother shared his "unique secret book" to deal with the winter itch. The general idea is that boiling hot water directly washes up from the feet, and the extreme itch will eventually turn into limp and numb "cool". If you rush to the brain blank and enjoy it, you will forget that this is a painful winter itch feeling ...

This is a bold and dangerous A Q treatment for itching. We don't advocate people with normal physique to do this operation for a long time at all. In contrast, another answer with Versailles flavor is much more reliable:

"My family is very ticklish, so we go to New Orleans, Houston, Bangkok, Hong Kong or Manila for the winter together."